The present invention relates to chairs with foot supports, and more particularly relates to a chair having a vertically adjustable foot support.
Chairs are often provided with foot supports to support the feet of seated users. This is especially true for chairs, such as stools, that have rotatable seats positioned too high for seated users to comfortably rest their feet on a floor. Users generally prefer that the foot support be at a selected distance from the seat, so that their feet are comfortably supported and so that they can push off of the foot support to rotate the seat. Unfortunately, with conventional designs, when the seat is vertically adjusted, the distance from the seat to the foot support also changes. Thus, the foot support must also be made adjustable. However, many customers do not want to have to separately adjust the foot support after the seat is adjusted.
In most stools, adjusting the foot support is a source of frustration. The user has to leave the seat, loosen a knob or lock, move the foot support, and lock the foot ring. If the user's foot support height estimate is off, the operation must be repeated. Another common user complaint is the requirement to touch the foot support to adjust its height. The user must grab and shimmy the support to the desired height. Most foot supports are difficult to adjust, and the user must apply extra energy to move the support to the height desired. Touching the foot support also creates a cleanliness problem, which is especially important in labs or clean-room environments. If users touch the foot support, they will need to wash their hands before they return to their work.
Because of these difficulties, most people do not attempt to adjust their foot support to the proper height, which leads to chronic uncomfortable foot support positioning. This problem is compounded in applications where the stool is used in multiple shifts, and users do not bother to adjust the height of the foot support on a daily basis.